How do you go about comparing and researching materials in terms of their environmental credentials and performance? Working with what we already have, rather than starting afresh every time, makes sense and is how we should be approaching construction projects. I think that refurbishment and retrofit are increasingly becoming part of the early ‘equation’ when it comes to deciding whether to demolish or replace existing buildings. Saying that, you and your client have to be comfortable with a certain level of unpredictability when specifying materials in this way.
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I believe it’s going to become a model for how to develop a circular economy, and the practice is interested in using this type of resource on its own projects.
Here, the council’s sustainability facilitator, Rafe Bertram, has set up what’s called an Excess Materials Exchange, which stockpiles building components – for potential reuse – from demolished buildings on the 82 hectare redevelopment site. Mæ is currently working on the Meridian Water masterplan for the London Borough of Enfield. Most construction products are single use, so if we can develop a stronger economy based around circularity, materials will have a much longer life. The trouble is, resources are limited and the only regenerative materials are timber, hemp, straw, bamboo, and mycelium, the vegetative stage of mushrooms, that is being used to make insulation and acoustic boards. We demolish around 50,000 buildings each year in Britain, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of our nation’s waste. This goes hand-in-hand with specifying materials and building systems that are environmentally responsible. Our initial thinking also centres on how we can use the least amount of materials necessary to achieve our design and structural objectives. The practice often undertakes studies for clients at Stage 1, assessing the viability of Modern Methods of Construction, including prefabricated modules and panelised building elements, which can steer projects in a certain direction. Ideally, we focus on material selection as early as possible. When and how do you focus on material selection during design projects? And if we do find something that we think is important, or a particularly good product, we try to make sure that it is taken forward into future projects where its use and design language can be further refined. It’s really important that we don’t end up in silos we want a cross pollination of ideas, thinking, and knowledge between projects and teams. The practice has technical reviews that ensure learning is shared between projects. How do you share knowledge learned in this area? The aim is create exemplar buildings in terms of sustainability and circularity.
The practice’s Mæ Zero team, which is responsible for researching and identifying products and materials, as well as developing technical solutions and details to help us deliver circular and zero carbon buildings, manages the library, Added to this, each design team makes its own contribution to material research. It’s rather better managed than ours and the intention is that we will be able to contribute to it over time. Alongside this, our landlord and neighbour Allies and Morrison has kindly extended us the use of their library which is located in the basement of this building. We also have project boxes, which tend to reside with their respective design teams and contain a mix of different project-specific items. The library is essentially a legacy of materials that we like and may want to reuse, organised by material palettes or types. How do you organise and manage the library? Research, application, evaluation and dissemination are central to this approach – undertakings that extend to and inform material selection, as Ely explains. The latter is particularly important to the team, whose ambition is to produce exemplary buildings that not only support the circular economy but also further environmental understanding and know-how. Founded in 2001 by Alex Ely, the office’s guiding design principles revolve around social inclusivity, spatial inventiveness, and sustainability. Located in the heart of Southwark, London, Mæ is an award-winning practice specialising in housing, health and care, and social infrastructure projects.
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